


white dresses and leather jackets

by StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Episode: s01e12 Prophecy Girl, Hurt, Introspection, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29707107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese/pseuds/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese
Summary: Buffy’s always liked nice clothes.
Kudos: 5





	white dresses and leather jackets

Buffy’s always liked nice clothes.

Her mom couldn’t afford that kind of thing, not really, so Buffy didn’t say anything to her. She just made do, with thrift shops and outlet malls and the occasional splurge with her father’s money.

Besides, back when she was popular in LA, that’s what everyone did. Nobody cared that Buffy’s clothes weren’t cutting edge. It looked cool. Retro.

But she still found herself stealing glances at the nicer stores, at jeans and shirts and sweaters that cost far too much, but looked  _ so nice _ .

And Buffy’s always loved dresses.

Maybe it’s not something a Slayer should like. Maybe a Slayer ought to like ripped jeans and t-shirts and biker jackets.

But Buffy doesn’t care. She’s Buffy Summers, first and foremost. She isn’t the Slayer, she isn’t the chosen one, she’s a girl. A person. She’s Buffy.

She gets even more invested in clothes after they move. Maybe it’s her way of unconsciously rebelling. Of claiming the one, tiny piece that can still be  _ Buffy _ , the girl who sighed at hot boys and didn’t worry about whether she had a cross in her pocket and whose only worry going out at night was if her hair looked alright. Maybe this was her brain’s way of saying  _ “this is mine, you can’t take it away from me.” _

Still, she isn’t dumb. She wears jeans and leggings and long sleeves and things that you can fight in– things that are harder to bite through– when she goes out to hunt vampires, and that’s all right. She thinks that LA Buffy would forgive her for that. And it’s not that she has anything against those clothes anyway; she likes those clothes and the way they look on her. 

But when her mom unveils the dress for the Spring Fling, Buffy knows that she’s seen the hunger in Buffy’s eyes, noticed the way her daughter’s fingers twitch with longing when looking in shop windows.

On any other day, Buffy would have been thrilled.

But it is not any other day. It is the day she’s going to die.

Still, Buffy smiles and she thanks her mother and she puts on the dress, and when she looks at herself in a mirror, she sees– just for a moment– the girl she used to be.

And then she puts on the jacket Angel gave her, and slips a stake up the sleeve.

She leaves the dress on.

If Buffy’s going to die, she wants to die as herself.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me what you thought i guess


End file.
